


Bonding Moment

by MiddleKeyFangirl



Category: Hawkeye (Comics), Marvel, Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616, Young Avengers (Comics)
Genre: Angst, Difficult Decisions, F/F, Hostage Situations, Minor Injuries, One Shot, Rescue, Rescue Missions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 04:20:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29076246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiddleKeyFangirl/pseuds/MiddleKeyFangirl
Summary: Kate and America are stuck together. Literally.
Relationships: America Chavez & Billy Kaplan, Kate Bishop & America Chavez, Kate Bishop & Billy Kaplan, Kate Bishop & Tommy Shepherd, Kate Bishop/America Chavez
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	Bonding Moment

It smells bad.

That's the first thing Kate notices. Her head hurts too much to open her eyes just yet, and she can't inhale too deeply because it makes everything hurt, but she can smell something. She's not sure what it is. She just hopes it's not a corpse.

Her neck hurts. Her head is slouched over onto her chest and her neck is bent at a terrible angle. She doesn't have the energy to move it yet.

She tries to figure out where she is and what's going on without opening her eyes. All she can gather is how much her body hurts. There's blood dripping down her forehead, hitting her lap. She can feel it seeping through her suit. There's blood on her lip too. It's always the lip, she figures.

Moaning, Kate leans her head back, hitting it lightly against something directly behind her.

"You're awake." America says. Kate still doesn't open her eyes, but lets her head push into America's.

"Barely."

She feels two fingers on her wrist, and the air getting caught in her throat. 

"You're okay," America sighs.

Kate sits in silence for a moment.

"Don't feel it," she says finally.

It's America's turn for silence. Kate doesn't like that. There's something up, she figures, there must be.

"Can't you get us out?"

"No," America huffs, wiggling in her chair. She tries to jump, and jostles Kate, who finally realizes they're tied together. She grunts when America's head hits her own, and she's sure she's concussed. "Sorry."

"Why can't we leave? And what's that smell?" Kate's trying to move her head, eventually settling on America's shoulder. America's hair is in her face, but it smells a million times better than the room they're in.

"There's something about this rope," America says. She's hiding it, but Kate can hear she's genuinely concerned. "It's affecting my powers."

"What do you mean?" Kate asks.

"You get hurt," she answers, almost too quickly.

Kate smirks as much as she can muster.

"If you want to spend time with me all you gotta do is ask."

Kate starts laughing at her own joke, but is promptly interrupted by a searing pain in her spine. 

"Fuck!" She's squeezing her eyes shut even tighter, but the pain stopped as quickly as it started. She takes a moment to catch her breath, finally opening her eyes. She looks at America, who's looking at her from the corner of her eye. She's trying to glare. "What the hell?"

America shrugged, gentle not to jostle Kate's head too much.

"It made my point, didn't it?"

Kate takes her head off of America's shoulder. "Yeah."

Kate finally looks around the space. They're in a white room, shining painfully with fluorescent lights. They're tied together in those chairs that boys grab in dozens to try to impress the girls in youth group. Kate's head hurts too much to remember that they're really just called folding chairs.

There's no one else in the room. It's just her and America. Great.

She finally finds the source of the smell. She's not sure what it is. She's not sure she wants too.

"It's some kind of alien plant, I think," America says. "I think it's what these ropes are made out of."

"Ah," Kate nods, looking down at the radioactive green rope. "Intergalactic weed rope."

America doesn't laugh. Not like she was expecting she would, but she just thought it would be nice to hear.

The room is quiet, save for the humming of the electricity.

Kate doesn't know what to do. She sits there. She sits there in silence until she starts to fall asleep. America notices. She calls Kate's name a few times, but Kate's a little out of it, and either can't quite hear her, or can't quite realize it's her name she's saying. She grabs Kate's hand, which does catch her attention. She leans up again, trying her best to turn to look at America. America lets go of her hand.

"Stay awake, okay?" America sounds gruff, but there's a hint of something in her voice. Something Kate can't quite recognize, but knows is something other than annoyed.

Kate, against her better judgement, makes a decision. Or spontaneously provides an idea. It wasn't a good one, and she really didn't like it, but she knew they had to get out of there. "Try to break the ropes."

"Kate that's not an option," America says sternly.

"It is though," Kate pushes. "Just... do it all at once. Really powerfully. It'll be really painful but we'll be out."

"I'll kill you," America's head snaps to try to look at her. "It won't be painful. You'll just be dead."

Kate huffs and pauses for a minute.

"Okay," she surrenders. "But if it comes to that, you know what you have to do."

"It won't," America says with certainty.

"How do you know that?"

"I trust the team to find us."

Kate laughs. "Just an hour ago you were calling them incompetent."

America doesn't respond. Kate's laughter dies, and she knows America's not telling her something.

"America?"

She doesn't respond.

Kate moves her hand to grab America's.

"What is it?" She asks.

America lets go of her hand a little forcefully.

"We've been here for a day," she mutters.

Kate's heart sinks. "Oh."

The two look down at the floor in front of their feet. The team would have found them by now, right?

"Well," Kate says, fake optimistic, "when I dehydrate and die in a day or two, you'll be able to get out."

"No," America says. Just a single word. Kate leans back into her.

"Then what?"

America doesn't answer again. She leans her head back against Kate's. It's an interesting sentiment, Kate thinks.

Kate wonders where the team could be. She wonders if they know where she and America are. She wonders if they even know they're missing. She feels guilty, but for no outstanding reason. She's been good to her teammates. Even when she was a dick she worked things out. She was on good terms with Clint. She gave Lucky the last slice of pizza before they left for the mission.

She remembers everyone on the team has some kind of invulnerability. Teddy can shapeshift. Billy does magic. Tommy can outrun anything. And America wouldn't go down, let alone without a fight.

But she's human. She's got nothing protecting her. One wrong move, one bad fall, one missed enemy, and she wouldn't even get to say goodbye.

"Well," she says again, "at least I get to say goodbye to you."

America seems to pull against the ropes a little.

"You were always my favorite anyways," Kate admits.

"Stop it," America says, words sharp and punctuated with the turn of her head. "Just stop. You can't-" She pauses, frustrated.

You can't what? Leave me?

"You can't say that," she settles on.

"Why not? It's my life. My death."

"You're not going to die!" America says it comparatively louder than she's said anything in the past ten minutes. "You can't die like this."

"And what other way is there?" She asks, a little annoyed. What say does America have.

"Anything! Anything that'll give you more time. You've hardly lived." America is struggling against the ropes again, hoping to break it with brute strength, like she hadn't already tried that a thousand times.

"Then break the rope!" Kate shouts.

"You'll die!"

"You don't know that!"

America grunts, giving up on forcing the ropes to snap apart. She falls back against the back of the chair rather hardly.

"Maybe I can break it- like if I do it slowly. Hardly using my powers, you know?" She tries to sound hopeful, but she's not doing a very good job of it.

"Yeah, okay," Kate nods.

America sighs.

"I'm sorry, in advance," she says.

The room is silent again. But this time there's a small hum coming from America as she tries to start up her powers little by little.

Kate makes no noise, even when her spine starts to ache. It's not unbearable. America pushes further, and Kate bites her lip until it bleeds, pain radiating from her nervous system.

"Are you okay?" America asks.

"Yes," Kate says, able to sound honest. "And the rope looks like it's splintering." It's not.

"Okay," America breathes. She knows Kate's lying, but she prays just this once she's wrong.

This time, Kate whimpers and her leg jerks, scuffing her boot across the floor. America stops.

"Keep going!" Kate yells. America starts back up, seemingly angrier, and Kate groans, throwing her head back into America's.

"Is it working?"

"Yes!" Kate lies. 

The pain increases again and she screams, her eyes locked closed. America is breathing heavily. It's the closest Kate's seen her to panicking.

Another notch up, and Kate's silent again, face red as she fights back a scream. Tears are starting to form in her eyes.

"Kate?"

"I'm still awake," she mutters through clenched, bared teeth.

America increases the power again, an audible snap coming from the rope. She almost smiles, but Kate's screaming again and suddenly her heart is lodged in her throat. She's doing this to her. She's killing her best friend.

The rope snaps again; Kate's still screaming. America can't see her face, but she can picture the pure agony that must be etched onto it.

"It's almost there," she assures Kate, though she's not sure how close to snapping the rope really is. "Just a little more."

She pushes a little more, and Kate cries out. She kicks at the floor and gasps, before going limp.

"Kate?" America panics, still holding her energy

"I'm okay," Kate wheezes. America ups the power, and hears Kate whimper and sob, and it kills her. The only thing giving her hope is the sound of the rope snapping even more.

She pushes further, and starts to feel sick as Kate makes no noise.

"Kate?" She's screaming now, calling desperately to her friend. She pulls her weight forward, hoping to use brute force and her power to break the rope.

It's not working. She knows she's holding back. She's afraid she's going to kill Kate. Or she already has. Either way, her power surges and the rope snaps one final time. The rope gives way and America shuts herself down, falling forward off of the chair.

She catches herself and immediately rushes over to Kate, kneeling in front of her. She puts a hand on the side of her face, and another beside her neck, gently shaking her.

"Kate?"

Kate says nothing. America feels nothing. She lets go of Kate's face, searching desperately for a pulse. She holds her breath, finding the beat just as Kate takes a shaky breath.

"Oh my God-" America feels her eyes water. "Kate!"

Kate stirs, eyes fluttering open.

She thinks she's dead. She's not sure if it's heaven, but she must be dead, because America is crying. Maybe it's hell?

"Kate..."

"Hey," Kate says.

America grabs her hand, and Kate realizes she's alive.

"Hey," America does one of those laugh-cries. "Hey."

"Hey," Kate says again. Her eyelids are heavy.

"Kate, I'm so sorry."

Kate looks at her.

"It's okay. We're okay," Kate tries to lean forward to hug America, who catches her as she flops out of the chair.

America's hugging her. Her face is buried in her shoulder, arms gently around her waist. Kate feels warm.

"I love you, you know that?" America says. "You're my best friend."

"You're being all mushy," Kate says, laughing. She hugs her back.

"Don't get used to it," America says, trying to smirk, but the energy in the room isn't right for it, so instead she closes her eyes and lets Kate slump into her.

"I love you too," Kate mutters, and America's heart is pounding. Kate can feel it, can almost hear it. And she knows that neither of them are just speaking as friends. It makes her giddy when America realizes it too, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

They stay like that for a moment.

"Terrible first date though," Kate says after a while, and America pushes her playfully off of her. Kate laughs and leans back, just barely enough energy to hold herself up now.

There's a single, massive, banging sound, and their heads snap to see their team entering the smelly, blinding room.

"Guys-" Billy lands and runs over to the two of them. "You guys are alright?"

"Yeah," America says, raising an eyebrow. "No thanks to you guys."

"Mhm," Kate agrees. She tries to stand, wobbling. Billy goes to catch her, but America's there first.

"You guys owe us," America says, letting Kate throw an arm over her shoulder. She knows she's just helping her walk, but she's smiling like a schoolgirl with a crush on the inside as she hooks her arm around the girl. Tommy seems to notice, and he's about to make a stupid comment, but Kate looks at him with tired eyes, purposefully and effectively making him feel guilty.

"Yeah," Kate nods. "You know, America almost had to kill me. So I think you owe us pizza for life."

The team looks guilty, but Kate looks at America, and the two of them smirk.

"Maybe for now," Teddy speaks up, "you should get her to a hospital?"

The rest of the team nods awkwardly in agreement.

"You know," America smirks. "I'd make you guys take her, but she said I'm her favorite teammate."

"No shit," Tommy says. America goes to give him a look, but he's already gone.

The team stares at each other in awkward silence.

"Sorry?" Billy offers. 

America's self-restraint not to punch him in the face was so strong in that moment.


End file.
